Handmade Holidays : Embroidery Hoop Ornaments

Oh my goodness - twitter and instagram is simply AWASH with gorgeous lovely festive photos of people putting up their xmas tree (see here and here for example). I have to wait till the step sons arrive to put up ours because xmas isn't really xmas without the kids, right? 

However, the nice thing this year is that I've bascially had a two month lead up to xmas where I've been at home! No planes, no suitcases, no trips - just hanging out in Seoul with the husband and the hounds! This is pretty unusual and also pretty awesome. It means I've actually sent my xmas cards before xmas this year, I'm almost ready to put all the presents in the post and I've had time for a spot of festive crafting.

The embroidery hoop ornaments above are going to my parents-in-law. I'm rather pleased with how they've turned out. I especially like the cardboard backing with stamp and message. These ones are in little 5" hoops. I've also made one in a 6" hoop, which you can get a sneak peak of if you scroll all the way down (I can't show you the whole thing because it's for someone who reads this blog!). Next I want to make one in a blue/turquoise theme for us (we're having a white, silver and blue xmas), and after that I think I might make some non-festive ones for the shop (I'm thinking rainbow and monochrome). 

Here's a little bit about how I put them together.

I used a stamp as my pattern, and just stamped directly on the fabric. If you've got a decent stamp collection like me, you'll be getting excited about all the stamping/embroidering possibilities. I've found a soft grey ink strikes the right balance between providing enough of an outline and not showing through in the finish (or you can match your ink to the thread like I've done for the blue one). The key is not to have too much ink on your stamp, otherwise the lines will bleed a little and you won't get a nice neat end product. Next - stitch away! I used a simple back stitch. Just make sure you keep your stitches nice and even and your lines fairly straight. I used a small length stitch for these.

Get some sturdy card stock and trace around the inside of your hoop. Cut it out so you have a circle that will fit neatly in the back. Next, centre your embroidery in the hoop and make sure the fabric is stretched nice and tight. This takes much longer than you think it will. Trust me. I used a ruler to double check the star was actually centred.

Cut off the excess fabric, leaving a 1" to 2" overhang. Then start stitching around the edge to gather up the excess and pull it tightly together. You are kind of 'pleating' the fabric. It's at this stage that you should put your circle of card stock in the back of the hoop. It's tricky to slot it in after you've stitched up the back. I know because I've tried. I tried because I'm an idiot.

Once you've stitched around the whole circle, gently pull the thread so that the fabric gathers together in a nice tight circle. Tie a knot. I also like to dribble a tiny little drop of glue on the edge of the cardboard so that it sticks to the wooden hoop at a point of two, to hold the card stock in place. Lastly, add your message to the back and voila! You're done!

Good Things...

The screenshot above is from an add for Shangri La, and I'm kind of obsessed with it right now. Yep, I'm obsessed by an add. It's been on high rotation on airline entertainment systems lately so I've seen it a lot over the past few months. And I still want to watch it again, and again. (How often can you say that about an add?) It's beautifully shot and makes me tear up every single time I watch it. And it makes me want to get a pet wolf... You can watch the extended version of it here. Kudos, add making people.

I was flipping through ELLE decoration UK recently (as an aside, this will be one interiors magazine I'll be keeping an eye out for - surprisingly great) and I came across the above picture of awesome. Just look at that sideboard, that pouf, those gorgeous bowls and...those owl canisters! They're from Graham and Green and I think they're pretty good things.

This is the work of Takashi Iwasaki - a Japanese artist and gallery owner who lives in Winnipeg, Canada. He works in a variety of mediums, but it's the crazy colourful embroidery that draws me in. I adore Miro, and there's a hint of Miro in this work (I think), but then add embroidery to the mix - swoon!

One of my husband's many siblings lives in the UK, and she often pops a DVD in the mail when she comes across a comedic gem she thinks we'll like. Miranda was the most recent of these comedic gems, and yes, we liked! We devoured season one and two, and then force fed the show to anyone who happened to cross our path. Miranda is awkward, clumsy and self deprecating in the best way. She's desperately single, terribly middle class, very likeable and very funny. The plot could read a little like a ladies only sitcom, but my husband is Miranda's biggest fan.

If you hadn't heard my ridiculously talented, endlessly inspiring sister has a book coming out - Find and Keep. From afar I've witnessed the blood, sweat and tears that she's put into this thing, and to see the finished product (which is a-ma-zing) out in the big wide world is pretty darn exciting. Its safe to say that as a family we're more than a little bit proud. I'm heading to the Melbourne launch next week, maybe I'll see you there? (ps. I'm in Melbourne for  24 hours! Crazy town!)

UPDATE : To coincide with the launch there's a super awesome giveaway going on at blog of super awesome The Design Files. Go enter now!

Creative Collective May Project: In The Hoop Part 2!

Sneaking in one last In the Hoop project for the last day of May!

I got my hands on some teeny tiny 3" hoops a while ago (they are adorably small), and I had a couple of old check shirts lying about (I loved the fabric too much to throw the out).  Put the two together, add a cross stitch heart and voila, here we are!  I can't wait to work on a few more, maybe some in pink or perhaps a fluorescent rainbow?  So much potential!  Don't you think this would look super cute as a present topper?  You could use fabric ink to stamp the back with a message?

Creative Collective May Project: In The Hoop

Well, I finally got myself organised in time to connect up with another one of the Creative Collective projects.  In The Hoop is all about craft projects that use embroidery hoops (and not necessarily for embroidery!).  It kind of helped that I am a bit hoop mad at the moment - the project has been a good motivator for me to finally make the time to put some of my ideas in to action.

These two hoops are the little 4" ones, and they are part of a 'Seasons' series that I've started working on. Here's Summer and Winter (if you can't figure out which is which I clearly haven't done a good job!), with Autumn and Spring to come, at some point.  Due to my complete inability to follow a pattern, this is free hand embroidery - I have some basic gridlines to follow and a bunch of ideas in my head, but really the design unfolds as I'm making it.  They'll be in my Etsy shop soon.

What do you think?

It's not too late for you to join in too - hop on over to the Creative Collective blog for all the details and for tons of crafty inspiration!  It's a great blog to follow for links to crafty ideas and how tos, go have a look see!

My Creative Space

Playing along with kootoyoo today...

I've been wanting to finish this winter's day inspired embroidery for ever, so I've pulled it out of storage and I'm keeping it on my desk where I can see it and where I can sew a few stitches whenever I'm waiting for a web site to upload, or a program to update, or an email to be answered.

I'm lucky that my office/crafting area/library/step-sons game room gets the afternoon sun.  It's the nicest way to wind down the day - I find embroidery quite calming, and it's especially so with the warm sun streaming in.

What are you working on, right now?

ps. That awesome 'english breakfast' tea bag pin cushion is by the very talented littleclouds.  You can get one here, if you want.

Win stuff! Hurrah!

To celebrate Good Things* 50 awesome followers (hurrah!) and also because it's my birthday soon (double hurrah!) I'm running my first ever blog giveaway during February!

Here's what you can win: 

A copy of Jenny Hart's really great book 'Embroidered Effects' which is full of lovely stitches to use and projects to make; a cheery orange 'prize ribbon' rosette brooch (made by me); and a hand embroidered (also by me!) 'sun burst' 5" hoop art.  And one or two other little crafty surprises.  Cool, huh?

And here's how you can enter: 

First up, you'll get one entry if you are a follower of my blog (via Blogger / Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs) and you leave a comment below.  And just in case you are the lucky winner, please make sure there is some way for me to contact you via your comment (you might link to your blog or your twitter).

If you want additional entries, you can get them by telling people about my giveaway and letting me know that you've spread the word in a comment below.  If you tweet it, include @ejorpin in your tweet so I know about it.

Other information you might want to know:

I'll be drawing a winner via random.org's third-party draw service.  The winner will be chosen entirely by chance (though of course you can increase your chances by increasing your number of entries).

Entries will close on the 28 February and (all going to plan!) I'll conduct the draw and notify the winner shortly after that.

If you have any questions at all, please do contact me.  Have fun and good luck!

Owl brooches

My mum recently asked my to make eleven owl brooches to hand out to a group she's been doing a course with (the owls symbolise wisdom gained!).  I was quite pleased with the end result.  For some reason I especially like variations on a theme - things that are the same but different.

I have a few spares to finish off for the Etsy shop, however considering that one of my goals for 2011 is  'taking advantage' of the time I have, I'm going to go slowly with them and think about ways to make the brooches extra special, maybe with some extra embellishment and embroidery.  Stay tuned!

Etsy Spotlight: Raw Bone Studio

I love felt and I love embroidery and I really really love the work of Raw Bone Studio.  I stumbled upon this shop while researching for this post on Handmade Spark and I had to get me some of those ornaments right away.  Don't you just adore the patterns and the detailing?

Robin is the talented (and funny!) lady behind Raw Bone Studio.  Here is a snippet from her Etsy profile:

Living in southern CA as a fair-skinned redhead, I've learned to spend the 8 month summers indoors creating. Kind of like Portland only opposite. If my hands are idle I can't think. Once I made a 12 foot gum-wrapper chain in one sitting.

Etsy Spotlight is the Good Things* seal of approval!  Read more here.